Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto
Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State, on Thursday handed over no fewer than 102 types of ammunition and magazines recovered from repentant bandits in the state to the state police command.
The weapons were recovered after a successful peace and reconciliation process embarked upon by the State Government with some suspected bandits and kidnappers in the state.
The governor, while presenting the ammunition to Police command, gave the breakdown which include 23 pieces of AK47 riffles with magazines, 4 MG with 2 MT magazines, 2 MT with 4 magazines and 7 GPMG riffles.
Others were 50 locally made riffles, 2 MFG with one magazine, 3 GP riffles with 3 magazines and others. He gave the total number of ammunition to be 102 alongside not less than 30 empty magazines.
Tambuwal called on the governments of neighbouring states to learn from the achievement recorded in the negotiation process and implement same so as to stem the menace of banditry.
He said, “I called on my colleagues from Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger States to step up the process of genuine negotiations with the bandits in their states. We should all comes up with a common position of dialogue with bandits and disarm them.
“I encourage my colleagues in these affected states to come up with a robust welfare packages that will help the repentant bandits to reintegrate back into the society and have a means of livelihood,” Tambuwal said.
The Governor however commended the authorities of Nigerian Police and other security agencies in the state for their efforts in sustaining peace in the state.
According to him: “This is a very important exercise because without peace and tranquility, nothing, I repeat, nothing can be achieve. We can not even moved from our bedroom to the kitchen to wash our hands or to even go out and look for means of livelihood.”
The governor therefore recommended Sokoto as a model to other states to emulate, saying that “without these kind of cooperation and synergy, we cannot achieve anything in this fight against insecurities in our country.”